The main aim of the article is to present Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011) through Todd McGowan’s theory of Real gaze. Contrary to traditional Film Theory, based on the mirror-stage, McGowan examines the gaze in Lacanian film theory. McGowan proposes four different types of cinema relationships with the gaze, which according to Lacan’s thought, is a sign of the presence of the Real. The author analyzes Drive, comparing it to McGowan’s types of cinema of fantasy and cinema of intersection. The first type exposes the excess, the second one describes the intersection of desire and fantasy. While referring to the concept of cinema of fantasy the author makes the point that Nicolas Winding Refn overly extends both audiovisual and storytelling components of the movie. Such exposure to an excess leads to the point where a viewer may realize the presence of the gaze. Analysis based on cinema of intersection is built on the point that Drive’s reality is divided between two worlds: fantasy represented by daytime activity between Driver, the protagonist, and his neighbor Irene, and desire represented by Driver’s nighttime activity. The exact moment when those two worlds collide is the moment the gaze is introduced. Both authors’ analyses lead to the final conclusion that Drive can be read as the exposure to its own Hollywoodian fairy-tale facade via gaze.The main aim of the article is to present Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011) through Todd McGowan’s theory of Real gaze. Contrary to traditional Film Theory, based on the mirror-stage, McGowan examines the gaze in Lacanian film theory. McGowan proposes four different types of cinema relationships with the gaze, which according to Lacan’s thought, is a sign of the presence of the Real. The author analyzes Drive, comparing it to McGowan’s types of cinema of fantasy and cinema of intersection. The first type exposes the excess, the second one describes the intersection of desire and fantasy. While referring to the concept of cinema of fantasy the author makes the point that Nicolas Winding Refn overly extends both audiovisual and storytelling components of the movie. Such exposure to an excess leads to the point where a viewer may realize the presence of the gaze. Analysis based on cinema of intersection is built on the point that Drive’s reality is divided between two worlds: fantasy represented by daytime activity between Driver, the protagonist, and his neighbor Irene, and desire represented by Driver’s nighttime activity. The exact moment when those two worlds collide is the moment the gaze is introduced. Both authors’ analyses lead to the final conclusion that Drive can be read as the exposure to its own Hollywoodian fairy-tale facade via gaze
